John Cleese still laughing in new autobiography - The Drawing Room - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) John Cleese still laughing in new autobiography First published: Monday 20 October 2014 3:16PM By: Anna Frey Taylor Image: John Cleese, unsurprisingly, says the longevity of Fawlty Towers is due to the fact that it's 'very good'. (Supplied) British comedian and actor John Cleese recently released his autobiography, So, Anyway. Waleed Aly caught up with the entertainment icon to hear stories from his brilliant life in comedy. Anna Frey Taylor reports. British actor and comic superstar John Cleese once held a deep love for Australian cricket. As a boy, Cleese possessed a curious passion for the Australian national team: Woodfull, Ponsford, Bradman, and fast-bowlers McDonald and Gregory were his heroes. Why he fell for the Aussies, rather than follow his own team of England, is a mystery—even to him. [Radio] is always a medium I like because it's more relaxed, there’s a sort of mellowness about it.

You don’t have to learn your lines, you can just sit here as I am—in my underpants—and nobody knows. John Cleese ‘It’s absolutely true and I don’t know why,’ says Cleese on his unusual passion. 'When Dad and I played our own version of cricket in the living room, which we played with a small piece of wood and a ping pong ball, I was always Australia.' Such anecdotes are plentiful in Cleese’s new autobiography, So, Anyway. The book recounts tales from Cleese's childhood, his days at Cambridge, and his early involvement with comedy troupe Monty Python. His distinctive comedic voice comes through the writing strongly; his friends say reading the book is like having dinner with the man himself. Incidentally, the autobiography is one of the few times the 74-year-old has written comedy alone. ‘I’ve nearly always written with Graham Chapman, or one of the other Pythons, or with Connie Booth,’ explains Cleese. ‘I wanted to write about my own life because I’m the only person who really knows about it.’ It was while working with Booth that Cleese first developed the award-winning comedy series Fawlty Towers.

The cult British sitcom about rude and eccentric hotel owner Basil Fawlty, his demanding hotel guests, bossy wife and hapless Spanish waiter remains popular to this day. Related: The satirical genius of Rob Sitch Neither Booth nor Cleese had any idea the show would become a worldwide phenomenon. Cleese attributes its success to a combination of luck, hard work and a timeless quality. 'I think there's two things about [Fawlty Towers]. One is that it’s not even vaguely topical. Watching it, nobody is thinking, "Is this the 80s or the 90s?", it just doesn’t matter.’ ‘The other thing is—and this is wonderfully arrogant—but I think that it's just good. Connie and I spent six weeks writing each script, and nobody writing sitcoms spends more than about a week writing.' The pair took their time developing the series, waiting for good ideas to appear before putting them into episodes. Reflecting on the nature of creativity, Cleese has said that all great artists take time with their projects. While Fawlty Towers was well-received abroad, it garnered an unusual reception in Spain. After all, Barcelona was the fictional home of bumbling waiter Manuel.

‘When they first put out Fawlty Towers in Spain, they dubbed it into Spanish,' recounts Cleese. 'The first two shows went out and then it disappeared. It wasn’t seen for about a year and by the time it reappeared, Manuel was Portuguese.’ So Anyway by John Cleese | PenguinRandomHouse.com Add to Cart About So Anyway John Cleese’s huge comedic influence has stretched across generations; his sharp irreverent eye and the unique brand of physical comedy he perfected with Monty Python, on Fawlty Towers, and beyond now seem written into comedy’s DNA. In this rollicking memoir, So, Anyway…, Cleese takes readers on a Grand Tour of his ascent in the entertainment world, from his humble beginnings in a sleepy English town and his early comedic days at Cambridge University (with future Python partner Graham Chapman), to the founding of the landmark comedy troupe that would propel him to worldwide renown. Cleese was just days away from graduating Cambridge and setting off on a law career when he was visited by two BBC executives, who offered him a job writing comedy for radio.

That fateful moment—and a near-simultaneous offer to take his university humor revue to London’s famed West End—propelled him down a different path, cutting his teeth writing for stars like David Frost and Peter Sellers, and eventually joining the five other Pythons to pioneer a new kind of comedy that prized invention, silliness, and absurdity. Along the way, he found his first true love with the actress Connie Booth and transformed himself from a reluctant performer to a world class actor and back again. Twisting and turning through surprising stories and hilarious digressions—with some brief pauses along the way that comprise a fascinating primer on what’s funny and why—this story of a young man’s journey to the pinnacle of comedy is a masterly performance by a master performer. About So Anyway John Cleese’s huge comedic influence has stretched across generations; his sharp irreverent eye and the unique brand of physical comedy he perfected with Monty Python, on Fawlty Towers, and beyond now seem written into comedy’s DNA.

In this rollicking memoir, So, Anyway…, Cleese takes readers on a Grand Tour of his ascent in the entertainment world, from his humble beginnings in a sleepy English town and his early comedic days at Cambridge University (with future Python partner Graham Chapman), to the founding of the landmark comedy troupe that would propel him to worldwide renown. Cleese was just days away from graduating Cambridge and setting off on a law career when he was visited by two BBC executives, who offered him a job writing comedy for radio. That fateful moment—and a near-simultaneous offer to take his university humor revue to London’s famed West End—propelled him down a different path, cutting his teeth writing for stars like David Frost and Peter Sellers, and eventually joining the five other Pythons to pioneer a new kind of comedy that prized invention, silliness, and absurdity. Along the way, he found his first true love with the actress Connie Booth and transformed himself from a reluctant performer to a world class actor and back again.

Twisting and turning through surprising stories and hilarious digressions—with some brief pauses along the way that comprise a fascinating primer on what’s funny and why—this story of a young man’s journey to the pinnacle of comedy is a masterly performance by a master performer. About So Anyway John Cleese’s huge comedic influence has stretched across generations; his sharp irreverent eye and the unique brand of physical comedy he perfected with Monty Python, on Fawlty Towers, and beyond now seem written into comedy’s DNA. In this rollicking memoir, So, Anyway…, Cleese takes readers on a Grand Tour of his ascent in the entertainment world, from his humble beginnings in a sleepy English town and his early comedic days at Cambridge University (with future Python partner Graham Chapman), to the founding of the landmark comedy troupe that would propel him to worldwide renown. Cleese was just days away from graduating Cambridge and setting off on a law career when he was visited by two BBC executives, who offered him a job writing comedy for radio.

That fateful moment—and a near-simultaneous offer to take his university humor revue to London’s famed West End—propelled him down a different path, cutting his teeth writing for stars like David Frost and Peter Sellers, and eventually joining the five other Pythons to pioneer a new kind of comedy that prized invention, silliness, and absurdity. Along the way, he found his first true love with the actress Connie Booth and transformed himself from a reluctant performer to a world class actor and back again. Twisting and turning through surprising stories and hilarious digressions—with some brief pauses along the way that comprise a fascinating primer on what’s funny and why—this story of a young man’s journey to the pinnacle of comedy is a masterly performance by a master performer. About So Anyway John Cleese’s huge comedic influence has stretched across generations; his sharp irreverent eye and the unique brand of physical comedy he perfected with Monty Python, on Fawlty Towers, and beyond now seem written into comedy’s DNA.

In this rollicking memoir, So, Anyway…, Cleese takes readers on a Grand Tour of his ascent in the entertainment world, from his humble beginnings in a sleepy English town and his early comedic days at Cambridge University (with future Python partner Graham Chapman), to the founding of the landmark comedy troupe that would propel him to worldwide renown. Cleese was just days away from graduating Cambridge and setting off on a law career when he was visited by two BBC executives, who offered him a job writing comedy for radio. That fateful moment—and a near-simultaneous offer to take his university humor revue to London’s famed West End—propelled him down a different path, cutting his teeth writing for stars like David Frost and Peter Sellers, and eventually joining the five other Pythons to pioneer a new kind of comedy that prized invention, silliness, and absurdity. Along the way, he found his first true love with the actress Connie Booth and transformed himself from a reluctant performer to a world class actor and back again.

Twisting and turning through surprising stories and hilarious digressions—with some brief pauses along the way that comprise a fascinating primer on what’s funny and why—this story of a young man’s journey to the pinnacle of comedy is a masterly performance by a master performer. Get the news you want from Penguin Random House Praise New York Times Bestseller “So, Anyway… ambles along in loose fashion, taking its time, stopping to admire the view here and there, dispensing a little social commentary…and otherwise taking the scenic route through a mostly sunny landscape. The effect is a bit like having a long lunch with an amiable, slightly loony uncle. Who also happens to be John Cleese.” —Michael Ian Black, The New York Times Book Review “John Cleese’s memoir is just about everything one would expect of its author — smart, thoughtful, provocative and above all funny… a picture, if you will, of the artist as a young man.” —Washington Post “Give John Cleese points for candor…Give him additional points for graceful writing and sly humor..” —Philadelphia Inquirer “The long-awaited story of the actor’s life, told how he wants to tell it.” —The Guardian From the Hardcover edition.

About John Cleese JOHN CLEESE cofounded the legendary Monty Python comedy troupe, writing and performing in the first three TV seasons of Flying Circus and in films that include Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian. He cowrote and starred in the sitcom Fawlty Towers, and… More about John Cleese About John Cleese JOHN CLEESE cofounded the legendary Monty Python comedy troupe, writing and performing in the first three TV seasons of Flying Circus and in films that include Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian. He cowrote and starred in the sitcom Fawlty Towers, and… More about John Cleese About John Cleese JOHN CLEESE cofounded the legendary Monty Python comedy troupe, writing and performing in the first three TV seasons of Flying Circus and in films that include Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian. He cowrote and starred in the sitcom Fawlty Towers, and… More about John Cleese About John Cleese JOHN CLEESE cofounded the legendary Monty Python comedy troupe, writing and performing in the first three TV seasons of Flying Circus and in films that include Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian.

He cowrote and starred in the sitcom Fawlty Towers, and… More about John Cleese Video & Media So, Anyway... | Penguin Books Australia John Cleese Candid and brilliantly funny, this is the story of how a tall, shy youth from Weston-super-Mare went on to become a self-confessed legend. En route, John Cleese describes his nerve-racking first public appearance, at St Peter’s Preparatory School at the age of eight and five-sixths; his endlessly peripatetic home life with parents who seemed incapable of staying in any house for longer than six months; his first experiences in the world of work as a teacher who knew nothing about the subjects he was expected to teach; his hamster-owning days at Cambridge; and his first encounter with the man who would be his writing partner for over two decades, Graham Chapman. And so on to his dizzying ascent via scriptwriting for Peter Sellers, David Frost, Marty Feldman and others to the heights of Monty Python.

Punctuated from time to time with John Cleese’s thoughts on topics as diverse as the nature of comedy, the relative merits of cricket and waterskiing, and the importance of knowing the dates of all the kings and queens of England, this is a masterly performance by a former schoolmaster. Format & Editions John Cleese Biography and Reviews | Readers Lane John Cleese dave 2016-12-31T17:54:31+00:00 Profile Best known as the tallest member of the zany comedy group Monty Python, John Cleese (b. 1939) is an acclaimed actor, writer and film producer. While studying law at Cambridge University, he first experienced life in the limelight performing with the Cambridge Footlights. He then went on to write comedy for such luminaries as David Frost and Peter Sellers, subsequently joining up with his main co-writer Graham Chapman and the rest of the Monty Python gang.

Following five years of antics with the Flying Circus (1969-74), Cleese has continued to write successfully for both television and movies, with hits such as Fawlty Towers (1975/79), A Fish Called Wanda (1989) and five Python films to his credit. In 2005, he was honored by having a new species of woolly lemur named after him. He published a memoir of his youth and early days in the British comedy scene in 2014, entitled So, Anyway. author photo by Paul Boxley John Cleese on Readers Lane John Cleese's autobiography to be out soon John Cleese's autobiography to be out soon ANI Tweet Share London, July 16 (ANI): John Cleese has recently confirmed that his autobiography named 'So Anyway' will be launched in October 2014. The 74-year-old legendary British comedian has mentioned various instances of his life like his nerve-racking first appearance at school, his experience of working as a teacher or his encounter with long time writing partner Graham Chapmanin the book, the Daily Express reported.

The autobiography has been published by Random House and they have quoted the story of this tall and shy boy from Weston-super-Mare, who went on to become a legendary comedian, brilliantly funny. (ANI) Reblog John Cleese Quits Movies, Says He's "Looking Forward" To Death - YouTube John Cleese Quits Movies, Says He's "Looking Forward" To Death Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Oct 13, 2014 British actor and comedian John Cleese says he's rather looking forward to the prospect of dying because "[m]ost of the best people are dead – I will be in excellent company having a wonderful time.” Cleese has recently been busy promoting his autobiography So Anyway..., and The Mirror reported on Sunday he made the darkly comic comments at a promotional event at the Cheltenham Literary Festival.

Cleese's famed absurdist humor came through when he said the fears of the modern world would no longer plague him when he dies. He said, "I have only got five or six years left and I will be gone – I won’t have to worry about ISIS or Ebola, I am looking forward to it." Cleese likely disappointed his legions of fans around the world when he ruled out a movie follow-up to A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. When asked about a possible follow-up film he said, “No, because it is too much like hard work. It is two-and-three-quarter years and I am too old for that process. If I started on it now I would die." John Cleese: U.S. politics are funny but ‘dangerous’ John Cleese: U.S. politics are funny but ‘dangerous’ Olivier Knox Share View photos Actor/comedian John Cleese signs copies of his book So, Anyway at Barnes & Noble, 5th Avenue on November 4, 2014 in New York City.

(Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images) More So John Cleese walks into a bar… At 6 feet 5 inches, the “Fish Called Wanda” star and “Monty Python” mainstay would be a head-turner even if he weren’t one of the most recognizable comic writer/actors of the last 40 years. He’s in Washington to promote “So, Anyway,” 375 pages of autobiographical recollections, packed with one-liners. But it’s not, strictly speaking, a comedy book. It’s not, to the probable dismay of “ Monty Python ” fans, even a thorough personal history of the absurdist, Ministry of Silly Walks-taking, Black Knight-maiming, you-sold-me-a-dead-parrot-I-want-to-return-it comedy troupe.

It’s Cleese’s life story, from childhood in the tiny English town of Weston-super-Mare onwards, through high school, Cambridge, performances in London, New Zealand (where the awkward Cleese lost his virginity), New York and ultimately the process of putting together “Monty Python.” It’s also an examination of how he used humor as a means to survive life, and what, at 75, the co-creator of “ Fawlty Towers ” finds funny. In an interview with Yahoo News at his hotel bar, Cleese discussed his mother, why young comics should steal from more experienced ones, why he’s happy to give autographs but thinks selfies are “poison,” how he’s trying to turn “A Fish Called Wanda” into a musical, and his view that American politics are funny but “dangerous.” Yahoo News has edited the hourlong question and answer session. Items in quotes were said, other material is paraphrased. Yahoo: What is the most irritating thing that people do when they meet you? Cleese: “They walk up to me in the street and say, ‘Can I have a photograph with you’?

I say, ‘You mean, to commemorate the fact we met five seconds ago?’ I think it’s a generational thing. For me, you took a photograph with someone because you’d had dinner together, or been to a party, or a football match. There was some relationship implied by a photograph. And there is no relationship as far as I’m concerned.” View photos Yahoo News Chief Washington Correspondent Olivier Knox speaks with actor/writer John Cleese at the Loews Madison Hotel in Washington on Nov. 6, 2014. (Nancy Baker for Yahoo News) More “When people ask me for autographs, that’s fine, if they want a picture of me, that’s fine. But the whole selfie culture – which I do think is poison, I think it’s literally poisonous.” I have to be honest. I am on page 250 of the book, so I’ve only skimmed the last section. (Laughs) “That’s all right. I’m delighted that you’ve actually read it, because I doubt that the British reviewers did.” Why write this book now? “I was in Barbados about – you know, it could have almost been 20 years ago.

I was with Michael Caine, and he’d just finished his autobiography, and he was saying what a good experience it’d been and how much he’d enjoyed it. And I said ‘why?’ and he said ‘because you reclaim parts of your life that you’d completely forgotten.’” You say some brutally tough things about your mother, which would make me laugh if I saw them in a novel but make me wince in an autobiography. Like: “Mother said that as a baby I never cried — I probably thought that if I did she might appear.” “I was not sure whether I should keep that one in. But everyone thought it was funny.” Was the book something of an exorcism? “I spent so much of my life in therapy, such an enormous proportion, that stuff has all, I hope, been worked through. Although I would not say that I loved her, I felt affection for her and I tried to be a dutiful son.

But all the exorcism, I think, had happened in the many years, previously, of therapy.” “But you see what interests me is that you say that, at lines in a novel you would have laughed at, you were holding back on, and I’m very interested in that area.” The stakes are lower in a novel than they are in a biography. “You remember the third dog that was killed in ‘Wanda’ ? It was squashed? Originally the close-up we had there, the director, Charlie Crichton, had lovingly sprinkled some entrails into the shot. The cinema was rocking with laughter, and the moment that shot went up, [it] froze. So we replaced it with a mat and the problem was never the same again. So if you remind people too much of the reality of the pain or the physical, then they stop laughing.” View photos John Cleese as Archie Leach in A Fish Called Wanda, 1988. (MGM/courtesy Everett Collection) More You have advice for young comics: Steal. But “good artists borrow, great artists steal” is attributed to Picasso. So did you steal your advice to steal?

(Laughs) “No!” “When you’re trying to do something as difficult as paint, or write a good comedy script, then the best thing to do is to start by emulating someone that you admire. Just the same way that you’d learn a golf swing.” Who are the best professionally funny people out there? “Well, the thing that leaps to my mind is the best set of notes that I ever got given were by Steve Martin. He came to a reasonably early cut of ‘Fish Called Wanda.’ We went out to dinner afterwards. And from memory – he’d not made any notes – he went through every scene in the movie and made suggestions about this, that. And I thought it was the greatest display of expertise that I’d ever seen.” “And [James L.] Burrows [of “Cheers” fame]. I thought he was a genius. [And the Monty Python crew, because] the criticism you got was very expert.” Everyone talks about “The Ministry of Silly Walks.” (Interrupts, laughing) “The day I die, it will be on (TV) screens. And the British press will say ‘Basil’s Fawlty Heart.’” But for me, the election night special was better.

“I was never a great fan of the Silly Walks sketch. I didn’t write it, but I didn’t think it was a great bit of material. But there was something about the seriousness.” Which is funnier, British politics or American politics? “Oh. See, I think the trouble is, American politics is much more significant and much more dangerous – it’s a bit like your feelings about my mother. I can laugh at American politics, but I really would not want to be between Dick Cheney and a million dollars. And I don’t feel that in England. I just think they’re no good.” “I can’t see any way, now, of salvaging the British culture. It seems to me it’s on the slippery slope. And there’s much more tolerance than there used to be and that’s an extremely good thing.” “What characterized the culture I grew up in was a disregard of money. And now it’s all about money. Everything is about money. And it’s spoiling sports as it spoiled the NBA.” I found your Twitter account. Do you follow @BritishMonarchy? That’s the Queen’s, Buckingham Palace’s, Twitter account. “I don’t. I didn’t know they had one.

I’ll tell you why I have one, and it’s for absolutely one reason. Stephen Fry said to me, ‘If you can get enough followers on Twitter, you don’t need to use the British Press. Now, when the Daily Mail makes a nasty remark about me, I can do a Twitter back. 'Cause I can always top them, 'cause they’re not very smart.” What keeps you up at night? View photos Actors John Cleese and Terry Jones in the Mr. Creosote sketch, from the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, 1983. (Stanley Bielecki Movie Collection/Getty Images) More “Reading ‘ The Hack Attack .’ I actually had to put the book down, I was getting too anxious. What else keeps me up? Not much. The nice thing about this stage of my life when I’m going to be dead in a few years – that’s OK, it’ll be interesting – and there’s nothing really I want to achieve, except I want to understand a few things better. And in the meantime I’d like to make a bit more money, 'cause I’ve nearly paid the alimony off” and then buy a bigger home for myself and my wife.

“Other than that, the things that make me happy are ridiculously simple: old friends, good food, reading, taking exercise, occasionally traveling [and spending time with my wife and our three cats, who provide us] with about half an hour each evening that’s better than anything on British television.” What gets you out of bed in the morning? “Usually a schedule,” including the book tour, which is due to run to Dec. 21. “I think I can do a musical out of 'A Fish Called Wanda.' My daughter and I have written the first book. What I think we need to do now, I need to earn a bit of money so that I can take a solid whack of time off like four or five months to put that on stage.” If you could somehow reassemble the Monty Python troupe at the height of their powers, today, what would be the ripest targets? “The problem is that we’re all gone in different directions, and we can’t agree on anything. If you’re saying what should we make a movie about, I think it’s extraordinarily difficult to write about anything contemporary because I don’t think anyone understands what’s going on.” “I don’t understand the celebrity culture.

I don’t understand why people would use Facebook. It’s hard to write for a generation that’s obsessed by Facebook when you have no idea why.” As the interview wraps, Cleese gathers up his coat. A man walks over from across the bar. “Could I get a picture with you?” he asks. “I’m sorry, I don’t do that,” Cleese replies with a contrite smile. “Sorry.” Reblog So Anyway by Cleese, John: Doubleday Canada 9780385680240 First Edition. - Better World Books Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Bookseller Inventory # GRP80427449 About this title: Synopsis: The autobiography of John Cleese, legendary cofounder of the Monty Python comedy troupe, creator of the award-winning British sitcom Fawlty Towers and featured performer in the James Bond, Harry Potter and Shrek film series. John Cleese ranks among the most popular and influential comic geniuses of our time. His work has had--and continues to have--an enormous impact on the world of entertainment.

After getting his start as a writer and actor on the landmark David Frost-hosted The Frost Report, where he worked alongside many who would later become comedy icons, Cleese landed his most famous role as a star of the TV show Monty Python's Flying Circus. To the legions of Python fans and comedy aficionados worldwide, Cleese's work with the Pythons has become the stuff of legend. From a Minister of Silly Walks, to the owner (and would-be returner) of a dead parrot, to the ultra-violent Lancelot in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Cleese's knack for madcap buffoonery played completely straight catapulted him to the shortlist of funniest men alive. Cleese followed his Python work with a hugely successful turn as the neurotic hotel manager Basil Fawlty in the British comedy Fawlty Towers, which in 2000 topped the British Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest Television Programs, as well as his starring role in the classic comedy A Fish Called Wanda.

These days there are fans who've come to know and love him for his recurring roles in the James Bond, Harry Potter and Shrek franchises, and his many guest appearances on TV, from roles on The Avengers and Dr. Who to, more recently, Will and Grace and Entourage. As Cleese himself quips, this is "the perfect moment to look back on my life in anticipation of the next fifty years." Product Description&colon; John Cleese?s huge comedic influence has stretched across generations; his sharp irreverent eye and the unique brand of physical comedy he perfected with Monty Python, on Fawlty Towers, and beyond now seem written into comedy?s DNA. In this rollicking memoir, So, Anyway?, Cleese takes readers on a Grand Tour of his ascent in the entertainment world, from his humble beginnings in a sleepy English town and his early comedic days at Cambridge University (with future Python partner Graham Chapman), to the founding of the landmark comedy troupe that would propel him to worldwide renown. Cleese was just days away from graduating Cambridge and setting off on a law career when he was visited by two BBC executives, who offered him a job writing comedy for radio.

That fateful moment?and a near-simultaneous offer to take his university humour revue to London?s famed West End?propelled him down a different path, cutting his teeth writing for stars like David Frost and Peter Sellers, and eventually joining the five other Pythons to pioneer a new kind of comedy that prized invention, silliness, and absurdity. Along the way, he found his first true love with the actress Connie Booth and transformed himself from a reluctant performer to a world-class actor and back again. Twisting and turning through surprising stories and hilarious digressions?with some brief pauses along the way that comprise a fascinating primer on what?s funny and why?this story of a young man?s journey to the pinnacle of comedy is a masterly performance by a master performer. "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title. Bibliographic Details Book review: ‘So, Anyway . . .,’ a memoir by John Cleese - The Washington Post Book review: ‘So, Anyway . . .,’ a memoir by John Cleese The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published.

You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set! By Jonathan Yardley October 31, 2014 SO, ANYWAY . . . Crown Archetype. 392 pp. $28 John Cleese’s memoir is just about everything one would expect of its author — smart, thoughtful, provocative and above all funny — but it is not what his most ardent fans probably have been expecting, a blow-by-blow account of the making of his most notable work: “Monty Python’s Flying Circus ,” the many films made by the Monty Python troupe and the “Fawlty Towers” situation comedy. All of these are near-universally beloved, but telling us about them is not what Cleese is up to in “So, Anyway . . . .” Instead it is an account of what he did before he got to Monty Python, a picture, if you will, of the artist as a young man. By pure coincidence, my early copy of “So, Anyway . . .” arrived as I was re-reading Noel Coward’s “Present Indicative,” the first volume of the great man’s memoirs.

I could as well have been re-reading that other classic British show-business memoir, Emlyn Williams’s “George,” or for that matter the greatest of all American theatrical memoirs, Moss Hart’s “Act One.” All these books tell the stories not of the renown their authors eventually achieved but of the hard work, frustration and disappointment they underwent before that renown at last arrived. Ditto for “So, Anyway . . . .” Cleese, like the others, had inauspicious roots. Born 75 years ago “in Uphill, a little village south of Weston-super-Mare” in the southwest of England, he was the only child of a difficult mother and a loving but rather feckless father. They existed somewhere at the lower levels of the British middle class — “class distinction” in Cleese’s native land inspires any number of tart and well-aimed comments — with the result that life was a bit of a struggle for young John, all the more so because he “was not just a little boy, but a very tall little boy,” awkward and not very coordinated.

This meant that he was better (or less bad) at some games than others, a trait not calculated to win much popularity in the fierce world of little boys, not to mention that his “social skills were poor.” ‘So, Anyway...’ by John Cleese (Crown Archetype) He was a hard worker, though, at least when what he was working on interested him, and as he made his way upward through the system of education, he gradually gained more confidence. At St. Peter’s Preparatory School he “was irritatingly tall, and pathetic and wet,” but soon enough he discovered a “survival technique: I sometimes said things that made the other boys laugh.” By the time he advanced to Clifton College (what Americans call high school), his confidence had increased, and he felt himself strongly drawn to comedy. It was a great time for British comedy, especially in the riotous films produced by Ealing Studios, most notably “The Lady Killers,” “The Lavender Hill Mob” and “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” all featuring the astonishingly protean Alec Guinness.

Later, when Cleese reached Cambridge and soon after his graduation therefrom, there was a transatlantic explosion of comedy: Kingsley Amis’s classic novel “Lucky Jim” (“which consistently made me laugh out loud”), the breathtakingly funny stage production “Beyond the Fringe,” the satirical television show “That Was the Week That Was,” and, on our side of the Atlantic, the trenchant songs of Tom Lehrer (“I Wanna Go Back to Dixie,” “The Old Dope Peddler” et al.) and the brilliant monologues of Bob Newhart (“The Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Co.),” “Bus Drivers School” et al.). Cleese soaked it all in and went to school on all of it. He began to try his hand at writing comedy but quickly learned “that it is exceedingly difficult to write really good comedy.” He says: “Those who can do it possess a very rare talent. Of course, there are a few writers who can think up decent jokes. A few more can do parody well. But the number who can invent an original comedy situation, and build that situation in a convincing but unpredictable way, and above all, get the emotional development of the characters right .

. . is infinitesimally small.” At Cambridge he found a small group of talented and like-minded fellows (most notably, of course, Graham Chapman) and began performing as well as writing, further enhancing his education: “Now that I was performing eight times a week, I really had the opportunity to learn more about the rules of comedy, which, of course, are nothing more than the rules of audience psychology.” In time Cleese caught the eye of David Frost, who in the 1960s was well on his way to becoming a stupendously popular and influential figure in British popular culture and who “would become the single strongest force shaping my career.” In the mid-1960s Cleese received “the most important phone call of my professional life.” It was Frost, who had used a few of Cleese’s Cambridge sketches in his own programs and was now offering him the chance to work on 13 shows he was preparing for the BBC.

Over and over again in the years that followed, Frost was “my patron, guide and chief employer,” giving Cleese the experience and financial support that in time led him, Chapman and others to a show of their own called “At Last the 1948 Show,” which is now “generally regarded as half a step in the direction of ‘Monty Python.’ ” Because tapes of these shows were not saved, Cleese treats us to written selections from some of them. One, “a parody of a popular BBC radio show where schools competed against each other in general knowledge,” had me laughing until I was sore, and when I followed Cleese’s urging and watched on YouTube a later performance of one called “Beekeeping,” I laughed even harder. For anyone who loves “Monty Python” as much as I do, these snippets from the “1948 Show” are a wholly unexpected bonus for which we can only be grateful. At this point all you other Pythonites know the rest of the story.

Cleese and Chapman teamed up with Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin — Cleese has always preferred working in teams to going it alone — to create what may well have been the greatest of all comedy shows. “Monty Python” was a natural outgrowth of the “1948 Show” but went much further in irreverence and unpredictability; it was indeed “Something Completely Different,” as per the title of the 1971 film collecting many of the very best sketches. Cleese does tell us a bit about the origins of the immortal “Dead Parrot” sketch, but he says not a word about my own enduring favorite, “The Ministry of Silly Walks,” leaving the sketch to be enjoyed forever but the mystery of its creation unsolved. Now, however gratuitously, I cannot resist adding a small personal note. Cleese tells us that one day in New York City — like Noel Coward, he went there when he was young and immediately fell in love with it — he bought a New York Times: “I skimmed the front page and something caught my eye — the date. It was Tuesday 27 October 1964. I was twenty-five.

So I went off and had a lovely celebratory lunch at my favorite restaurant.” I cannot remember what I did on that same day, but it was my 25th birthday as well, just as the same day last week was my 75th birthday and his. We have never met and probably never will, but we are transatlantic twins, even if he is six inches taller than I am. Oct. 27 is also the birthday of Theodore Roosevelt, Nanette Fabray, Dylan Thomas and a host of others, but so far as I am concerned John Cleese is the only one who matters. SO, ANYWAY . . . Crown Archetype. 392 pp. $28 opinions News and analysis on the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

post_newsletter348 John Cleese Tickets - StubHub UK John Cleese Tickets 20:00 at Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda 5 tickets left 19:31 at Kirby Center in Wilkes Barre 7 tickets left 19:00 at Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank 10 tickets left 15:00 at Chicago Theatre in Chicago from 19:00 at McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert 23 tickets left 15:00 at McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert 45 tickets left 21:30 at Pantages Theatre Tacoma in Tacoma 4 tickets left 19:30 at Pantages Theatre Tacoma in Tacoma 2 tickets left 19:30 at Arlene Schnitzer Hall in Portland 0 tickets left You might like this... John Cleese's "So Anyway …" Best known for co-founding Monty Python in the late 1960s, English comedian, actor and writer John Cleese has been a fixture in the comedy world for nearly half a century.

In that time, he has starred in various television series, including the classic British comedy "Fawlty Towers," numerous Hollywood films, many of which are considered as classics today or achieved incredible success at the box office, and has pursued other artistic and comic pursuits. Read More John Cleese's "So Anyway …" Best known for co-founding Monty Python in the late 1960s, English comedian, actor and writer John Cleese has been a fixture in the comedy world for nearly half a century. In that time, he has starred in various television series, including the classic British comedy "Fawlty Towers," numerous Hollywood films, many of which are considered as classics today or achieved incredible success at the box office, and has pursued other artistic and comic pursuits. Plot Cleese's latest effort has been writing his autobiography entitled "So Anyway …", chronicling how he went from being a shy young man in Weston-super-Mare to a comic legend. For example, he describes his terrifying first public appearance at the tender age of 8 and five-sixths years old at St. Peter's Prep School, as well as how he met Graham Chapman, the man who would be his writing partner for more than two decades.

The book is, of course, populated with Cleese's adept sense of humour, as well as various musings and philosophies about the world, which he has chronicled over the past half century as a comedian. Schedule Cleese is taking his book tour on the road through his home country of the United Kingdom. This tour will stop in places such as the Cheltenham Literature Festival, the Cambridge Arts Theatre, the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, EICC in Edinburgh, Cadogan Hall in London, the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells Assembly Hall and Colston Hall in Bristol. Since this live book tour will undoubtedly be popular, get John Cleese tickets as soon as you can. Trivia While "So Anyway …" is most likely all true, Cleese has changed his past before, just to see if anyone would notice. During the early 1970s, Cleese would regularly add fake films to his annual filmography listing in Who's Who.

Fake films included "The Bonar Law Story," "Abbot & Costello Meet Sir Michael Swann," and "Confessions of a Programme Planner." Cleese admitted to this joke in the 1980s, though these fake films will occasionally still make poorly researched reference books and bios published about him today. Cast The only cast members in John Cleese's live book tour will be John Cleese himself, though it wouldn't surprise anyone if various friends of Cleese showed up, including fellow actors and comedians he has worked with over his long career, everyone from the talented crew of fellow actors and comedians who worked alongside him in Monty Python to Kevin Kline or Jamie Lee Curtis who acted with him in "A Fish Called Wanda" to any of the Muppets, who Cleese has acted beside regularly on Sesame Street and in their movies throughout his career. Original Author Unless other facts are discovered in the future, the original author of John Cleese's autobiography "So Anyway …" is John Cleese. However, could this just be a very well disguised gag by Cleese?

Producers The Live Book Tour for John Cleese's autobiography "So Anyway …" is produced by Phil McIntyre Entertainments, who has been producing, promoting and representing some of the finest entertainers and shows in the UK and the world since 1974. They have done a number of hit stage plays in the past, like Gasping, Silly Cow, Slip of the Tongue, Waiting for Godot, Smaller and Laurence Olivier's classic Popcorn. They also produced the musical collaboration "We Will Rock You," with Ben Elton, Robert De Niro and Queen. In other words, the producers of Cleese's live book tour are some of the best in the business and will most likely deliver a memorable show.

Question: Which British comedian and actor published his autobiography “So anyway... ”in 2014?
Answer: JOHN CLEESE